A charity supporting elderly people has condemned the pension benefit cuts announced by the government yesterday (July 29).

Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed cuts would be made after Labour were left with “the worst inheritance since the Second World War” by the Conservatives – with her saying the Government had inherited a £22bn hole in public finances.

The chancellor announced only those on Pension Credit or means-tested benefits would get the Winter Fuel Payment – and those on the credit would get £200 and £300 if someone is over 80.

Caroline Abrahams CBE, charity director at Age UK, said her organisation “strongly opposes” this measure, and have estimated that nearly two million pensioners will be left without the money to stay warm this winter as a result.

She added that “well-off” older people will barely feel the knock-on effects of this decision and called its implementation a “social injustice.”

She said:  "We strongly oppose the means-testing of Winter Fuel Payment (WFP) because our initial estimate is that as many as two million pensioners who badly need the money to stay warm this winter will not receive it and will be in trouble as a result – yet at the other end of the spectrum well-off older people will scarcely notice the difference – a social injustice.

“A big reason for this disastrous outcome is that more than one in three pensioners entitled to Pension Credit, the qualifying benefit for WFP under this proposal, don’t receive it, a proportion that’s been roughly constant for many years.

“More than 800,000 older people living on very low incomes – under £218.25 a week for single pensioners and under £332.95 for couples – who are already missing out of the Pension Credit they are entitled to get to boost their incomes, will now lose the WFP that helps them to pay their fuel bills.”

She added around a million pensioners, whose weekly outcomes are lower than £50 per week above the poverty line, will be “hit hard” by the loss of this payment.

She also said older people with slightly higher incomes who live in energy-inefficient homes, or a are seriously unwell, and need to keep the heating up are also struggling.

Ms Abrahams said the announcement of means testing WFP was given with hardly any notice or compensatory measures to protect pensioners, and said It will compromise their health and financial stability.

“Older people in this group often tell us they really struggle financially; the proposed change will make it even harder for them to afford to stay warm when it gets chilly,” she added.

“It is well established that pensioners tend to do everything possible to avoid going into debt, so if they are worried about their future energy bills, we know their likely response will be to ration their fuel use and economise by reducing their spending on other essentials.

“This proposed policy change is therefore certain to result in more older people experiencing a horrible 'eating or heating' dilemma.  

“Means-testing WFP this winter, with virtually no notice and no compensatory measures to protect poor and vulnerable pensioners, is the wrong policy decision, and one that will potentially jeopardise their health as well as their finances – the last thing they or the NHS needs.

“With winter now just over the horizon, the Government should halt their proposed change to WFP and think again, given the clear evidence of how it will hurt the older people who need it the most.”